I didn't know one December morning many years ago when I got in my car to drive the same route I drove every morning from my apartment to the Grand Rapids, Michigan campus where I was a student, that a hunter and his dog had also set out that morning to go wherever hunters and their dogs go to hunt. I didn't know that this particular hunter had decided to pass a string of cars on a curve I was entering. He thought he was passing on a four-lane highway. He was mistaken. There were only two lanes, and he and I were driving in opposite directions toward each other in the same lane. We were on a collision course.

I fear Bible Christians are also on a collision course, with our culture, even with our government. We have been on this course, moving in opposite directions in the same lane, as it were, for several decades, but now we are closer and closer to the time when neither side can turn away.

Think of the areas of conflict that exist between Bible Christians and the culture that has rapidly engulfed virtually the whole world, but especially North America and Europe. The issues that separate us from the world are huge, vital, and not able to be breached by compromise.

Those who believe the Bible to be the true Word of God are taught by the Word that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God spoke, Genesis states, and all came into existence. From the land, the seas, the sun, the moon, stars, plants, animals all the way to human beings, the Bible clearly and unequivocally teaches that God created the universe out of nothing. There is no room for evolution in the Genesis account.

But our culture demands that evolution be the sole explanation for the universe given to our children in public schools. Evolution, which leaves no place for God, and creation, which leaves no place for evolution are on a collision course. Neither side will give in; neither side can give in. The Christian cannot in good conscience violate what the Bible teaches. Our culture, having abandoned the Bible as a legitimate means of explaining the universe, cannot yield to the Book they have so thoroughly rejected.

Those who believe the Bible to be the true Word of God are taught by the Word that life is sacred, and not to be taken except in cases of self-defense and in the execution of one who has committed violent crimes against others. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed,” Genesis states.

Our culture has, for nearly forty years, taken the lives of millions of innocent human beings who had committed no crime, were given no trial before their peers, and who had no way to defend themselves. They call it abortion; the Bible calls it murder. Bible Christians and the culture are on a collision course where the unborn are concerned, and neither side can turn away to avoid the inevitable collision.

Those who believe the Bible to be the true Word of God are taught by the Word that marriage was invented by God when He created a woman and presented her to the man He had earlier created. Marriage consists of one man and one woman. Yes, some of the Old Testament patriarchs did have more than one wife. However, God’s revelation is sometimes progressive, and by the time of the New Testament, the prevailing understanding of God’s people was that God desired the Adam and Eve model of marriage to be the only acceptable one. For generations of people all over the world, this has been the norm: one man and one woman united in holy matrimony.

Our culture now has come to the place where it accepts a wider view of marriage than what the Bible allows. Our culture more and more is accepting and endorsing the concept that any two people can create a marriage, regardless of gender. Same sex partnerships are not only accepted in many parts of the world today, they have been legalized. They are sanctioned as a marriage union. This puts Bible Christians on a collision course with our culture, and neither side has the ability to move to avoid a collision.

Those who believe the Bible to be the true Word of God are taught by the Word that homosexuality is a terrible sin against God and against nature. The Apostle Paul referred to it as exchanging “natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.” He states homosexuality involves men “inflamed with lust for one another.” In the Old Testament, in Genesis 12, it is clear that God destroyed the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because the sin of homosexuality was rampant in them.

Our culture, however, has come not only to accept homosexuality as “normal,” but also to endorse it and embrace it. Homosexuality is openly flaunted in public places and in the media. Same-sex couples walk hand-in-hand and kiss in public and in movies and televison programs. They are even now encouraged to adopt innocent children and raise them in homes with “two mommies” or “two daddies.” Christian morals and our culture’s embrace-all-immorality attitude are on a collision course, and neither side can turn away.

Whatever the Bible endorses, our culture is more and more against. What the Bible condemns, our culture is more and more embracing. This is a collision course and the inevitable crash is coming soon.

The day will come when Christians will be forbidden to teach what the Bible says under penalty of the law. It will be considered a hate crime to teach the Bible truth that homosexuality is a terrible sin. Churches will lose their tax exemption status if they insist on teaching creation instead of evolution. Pastors will be put in jail for refusing to perform ceremonies uniting same sex couples. Followers of Jesus Christ will be put in the cross hairs of a world gone mad with its sinful passions.

It has happened before, of course. Ancient Rome tried to persecute the Church of Jesus Christ out of existence. Rome is gone; the church is still here. Muslims tried to take over vast areas of Europe in the middle ages in an attempt to rid the world of Christianity. But Christ and His followers are still here. The Church has been ignored, persecuted, legislated against, harassed, taxed, slandered, beaten, threatened, tortured, mocked, ridiculed, and has faced a host of other indignities in its two thousand years of history. But it is still here. It is still here because it is God’s church, and those who fight against it fight against Him. He is the Church’s defender and protector, and none will ever prevail against Him permanently.

However, hard times are ahead for the Church of Jesus Christ as the world more and more shows its hatred of that which belongs to God, and hatred for God Himself. We His people cannot, we must not turn away.

That hunter and I so many years ago, on a two-lane highway in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did have our collision. He was wrong; he was driving the wrong way in my lane. We were both injured, our cars were seriously damaged, and we tied up traffic for a time until things could be cleared away.

In the collision that is coming, those who reject God and His Word are in the wrong. God’s people are in the right. But we will face the damages and losses that a collision always brings, whether a collision of automobiles or a collision of precepts and ideals.

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